This Week in Texas Methodist History January 26

Seventeen Year Old John Wesley Hardt Published in Southwestern Advocate

I have discovered perhaps the earliest published article written by my father, (later Bishop) John Wesley Hardt.  He was a 17 year old college student at Lon Morris College in Jacksonville, Texas, when he submitted the following to the Southwestern Christian Advocate

One of the most outstanding weeks of progress on Lon Morris campus was experienced last December when the college Revival was held.  Since September we had been looking forward with hopes and prayers for that particular time.  And so, when Brother Walter Rabb Willis came to us we were expecting great things; and when he left, we realized that our highest expectations had been exceeded. 

It has now been two months since this meeting was held and we can see that its lasting effect is of untold value.    Not only did Bro. Willis deliver some wonderful sermons, but he also won his way into the hearts of the students.  There were very few minutes while was here that he did not spend speaking to group or individual.  Many individual lives were lifted to higher planes of living, and all of us were drawn closer to the Christ.  Truly we had a great revival. 

Here on Lon Morris campus, we enjoy many religious services every week.  Each morning a group meets for prayer and scripture reading in what we call Morning Watch.  All who attend are greatly helped in their spiritual lives.  A close connection between the church and college is maintained.  The college group meets together in a group of its own at the church school and league hour.  We are happy to be able to continue these relations with the church.

Probably the outstanding religious feature of our campus is our Religious Council, which meets every Thursday evening.  This organization is run on a very business-like basis.  Its officers are elected at the end of the first semester of the year.  The outgoing officers were President, Inez Cordrey; Vice-president, Bill Shirey; Secretary, Frances Blanton; Treasurer, Earl Doyle; Reporter, Francis Carolyn Wood.  Those wqo were elected for the new year were:  President, John Wesley Hardt; Vice-president Fidelia Kilgore; Secretary, Martha Carson; Treasurer, Buck Watson; Reporter, Pat Ball; and Program Chairman, Sarah Barber.  The sponsor of the organization for a number of years has been Miss Donnelia Smith.  The programs are always ever inspiring and helpful.  Right now we are laying emphasis on the Youth Crusade.  For some time we have been trying to organize a Sunday School in a spiritually neglect part of the city.  At last our hopes and labors seem to be fulfilled and we expect to get started immediately.  We are looking forward to the doing of great things.  We are learning to be better Christians.  Lon Morris is teaching us to really live. 

            Martha Carson is, of course, my mother.  She had just turned 18 when this article was written in early 1939. 

This Weelk in Texas Methodist ;;History  January 19

Travis Park MECS in San Antonio Hosts Missionary Council  January 1939

San Antonio was, and is, a great place for a winter meeting.  It has a mild climate, excellent transportation connections, and all the tourist attractions one could wish for.  In January, 1939, Travis Park hosted the Missionary Council of the MECS.  At times the entire church auditorium was filled to standing room only capacity to hear some of the most prominent speakers of the denomination. 

Everyone assumed that unification with the MEC and MP churches would occur so this would be the last Missionary Council meeting of the MECS.   Unification would bring new challenges, but most attendees believed things would run smoothly because the MECS and MEC had been cooperating in foreign missions for decades as attested to by the Centenary Campaign. 

The foreign mission field of most concern was East Asia.  Methodists, both North and South, had poured missionary resources into China, Korea (or Chosen as the conquering Japanese had renamed it), and Japan for decades.   That work was now in peril as the imperialistic Japanese government was determined to exert its dominance through the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.  Japanese militarism had a strong religious component as Shinto received new emphasis and western religions such as Christianity were suppressed. 

On the other hand, delegates were also optimistic about the future of the church after Unification.  Preliminary unification documents indicated that the newly-created Methodist Church would adopt two emphases—Mission and Evangelism, although no one knew what new structures would emerge to meet those goals.   They did suggest that instead of all funds being funneled into a central agency and then disbursed to missions, that local churches adopt a particular mission or missionary. 

Much of the program was quite conventional.  The liquor traffic continued to draw condemnatory speeches.  The need to combine the personal and social gospel was a theme used by several speakers.   Communism, Fascism, and Humanism were conflated, and the answer to all three was, as usual, a personal relationship with Christ. 

One of the speakers was Arthur Moore, MECS bishop who had been assigned to foreign missions.  He stressed the need to continue working in both China and Czechoslovakia.  Moore had served as pastor of Travis Park so he was back in his old pulpit.   All of the other active MECS bishops were also there, as was Forney Hutchinson of Boston Ave. in Tulsa,  W. G. Cram and Mrs. J. H. Spiller rounded out the MECS delegates.

The Methodist Protestant Church as represented by its President J. H. Straughn as there were no bishops in the MP Church J. W. Hawley of the Board of Missions.

The MEC church sent Bishops Edwin Holt Hughes, Ralph Cushman, Alda Leonard,  and Ernest Richardson.  Mesdames W. H. C. Goode and Thomas Nicholson also represented the MEC. 

Probably the most memorable part of the meeting for Texas Methodists was not part of the program. 

One of the lay men to attend was W. W. Fondren  (b. 1877)of Houston.  He was already well known for his philanthropy directed to SMU, Southwestern, Rice, Scarritt, and the Methodist Hospital.  .  He died in San Antonio while attending this meeting.  Mrs. Fondren (Ella) (b. 1880) lived another 43 years and continued and expanded the philanthropic work of the family.   

This Week in Texas Methodist History  January 12

Bishop DuBose Dies in Nashville, January 15, 1941

Before 1939 Methodist bishops were elected by the quadrennial General Conferences.  Since then they have been elected by Jurisdictional Conferences.  A main key to election has always been gaining recognition in more than one conference.  There have been three main ways to gain such recognition.  The first was the presidency of one of the denominational colleges.  The second was a staff person for one of the Boards or editor of one of the denominational publications.  The third was transferring to several conferences. 

Horace M. Dubose is a perfect example of someone who employed two of those routes. 

He was born in Alabama in 1858.  He moved to Mississippi as a child.   He entered the Mississippi Conference in 1877 and served three years before transferring to the Texas Conference.  He served Galveston, St. James, Huntsville, and Houston Shearn (today’s First Houston).  He then transferred to Marvin in Tyler which was in the East Texas Conference.  He served there from 1885-88 and transferred again.  This time he went to the Los Angeles Conference and Trinity Methodist in Los Angeles.  While there, he was editor of the Pacific Advocate (1890-94.

He came back to Marvin in 1895 and 1896, but then returned to the Mississippi Conference and First Methodist in Jackson.  In 1898 he was elected Secretary of the Epworth League and moved to Nashville.  His new job included editing the Epworth Era.  He held that position for 12 years and left it for St. John’s in Augusta, Georgia in the North Georgia Conference.  He then went to Atlanta First Methodist and in 1915 with the passing of Dr. Gross, back to Nashville as Book Editor and Editor of the Methodist Review. 

He was elected bishop in 1918 and retired in 1934. 

In addition to his editorial and pastoral duties, he was also an author. The most useful of his books is his biography of Bishop Joshua Soule.  He was one of the most prominent advocates for unification and prohibition. 

This Week in Texas Methodist History, January 5

Texas Conference Conducts “College Appreciation Week” January 10-17, 1937

All churches in the Texas Conference of the MECS were expected to conduct a “college appreciation week’ during the week of January `10-17. 1937.   There were rallies throughout the conference in Houston, Beaumont, Pittsburg, Jacksonville, and Bryan.  The five meetings were staggered through the week days of the designated week so that the speakers could attend all five rallies all lasting from 10:00 to noon. 

The speaking crew, assembled by John V. Berglund of Bering Memorial in Houston, in his role as Chair of the Board of Higher Education and Wesley Foundations, was headed by Boyd M. McKeown from the denominational board in Nashville.  The other speakers were H. I. Robinson of Texarkana, J. W. Mills, and Cecil Peeples of Lon Morris College.  This was the third year such a college week was organized. 

On Sunday, January 17, each church was supposed to devote the morning worship service to the college appreciation theme.  Naturally there would be a special offering to support the colleges and Wesley Foundations. 

Part of the reason for the campaign was that Lon Morris had severe financial problems.  Although Lon Morris was just a few miles away from the most important petroleum boom in North America—the East Texas Field, the Great Depression had depressed employment and commodity prices throughout the Texas Conference, and many prospective students could not afford even a relatively inexpensive college like Lon Morris.   Although the effort included Wesley foundations, everyone knew that the real purpose was to pay down the Lon Morris debt.

There were significant results.  On Jan. 17, First Methodist Jacksonville, the home of Lon Morris, raised $1467.   The pastor was L. W. Nichols. 

What about John V. Berglund who organized the College Appreciation Week?  He finished his career at one of the church schools, Southwestern University, teaching Bible.